Bases are Loaded
by Silver345
Summary: Maya has won every bet with Lucas up until now. The conditions are simple: if she makes the softball team and leads the team to playoffs, Lucas will do whatever she wants him to do for a week. But she might just strike out of this bet. Rated T as a safety measure because I'm not sure what direction I'm going to take this. Lucaya
1. Chapter 1

My New Years resolution is to finish this story which I have started. LETS DO THIS THING!

Of course we're going to ignore the fact that most New Years resolutions are broken within a week, right? Right. Glad we're on the same page here.

* * *

It was the end of the winter of sophomore year at John Quincy Adams High. In other words, baseball season. And even though he tried countless times to explain to his friends that he was more than a baseball jock, Lucas _loved_ baseball.

Unlike the rodeos that Pappy Joe had always signed him up for, in baseball, there was nothing for you to fall off of, there was no one and nothing touching you period, and even better, he got to hit things with a bat. And as a youth with anger issues, this was an extremely exciting occasion.

He had played catcher on the freshman team last year and he was planning on trying out for the position again, but there were quite a few juniors and a senior also trying out for the position, so he doubted he would make varsity. But he was alright with that, so long as he made a team, he was thrilled that he would get to play the sport.

There were three days to tryouts, Wednesday through Friday after school on the baseball field. It was only Monday. It was only the second period of the day.

Needless to say, Lucas couldn't focus on Honors Chemistry.

The former Texan let out a grunt in frustration as he glanced at the clock and found that only two minutes had passed since he had last checked. He only noticed that he was tapping a pencil when suddenly a small hand had snatched the writing utensil from his hand. He turned towards the girl who the hand was attached to and met her glare with a questioning look.

"Huckleberry, I'm going to give this pencil back. But if you start tapping it on the desk again, I will be sure that you never get your pencil or your hand back, got it?" He gave an apologetic smile as he took back the mechanical.

"Sorry, Maya, I'm just a little antsy I guess." She tilted her head.

"For what? Spring break isn't for a while yet, you get spring fever early, Sundance?" He glanced at the board and then back at her.

"I'll tell you after." Maya rolled her eyes and started poking him in the shoulder.

"Come _on_ , Hop-along, we sit in the back, the teacher doesn't care what we do back here. Spill. Come on. Tell me. Tell me." A sharp-nailed finger jabbed his shoulder to punctuate each word. It didn't take much prompting (he was _dying_ to tell someone why he was so excited and her nail was _really_ sharp) but he finally caved.

"Baseball season." He said quickly, flashing her a bright smile. She blinked slowly.

" _That_ _'_ _s_ why you're twitching like a rabbit drinking moonshine?" He snorted at her analogy.

"For the record, that would kill a rabbit, but yeah."

"That's all? Really?" she asked, staring at him incredulously. He shifted his gaze left and right before settling on her face.

"Um, yes? You know I like baseball, why are you so surprised?" She shook her head in confusion.

"I don't know, I guess its just beyond me why you like such a dumb sport that doesn't even take that much athletic ability." His eyebrows furrowed together.

"Baseball isn't dumb…" he said, disappointment clearly lacing his voice. Maya's passiveness faltered because she had expected a more angry response, but she shrugged.

"Well I mean, you hit something with a stick and then run around in a square. And its not like it requires that much athletic ability—"

"It does too! You need a lot of athleticism to play baseball!" The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, but no. I've seen some huge guys playing it on TV and if they can play it, anyone can."

"Not true!"

"Mr. Friar, do you have an assertion to make on the subject of hydrogen bonds? Because I can assure you that surface tension actually _is_ why things float, it isn't exactly a debatable subject." Lucas' face went bright red in a matter of seconds after the teacher addressed him. He muttered an apology and the teacher went back to the lesson as Maya poorly concealed her snickering.

He glanced at the clock again. Arguing with Maya had taken up forty minutes of class time and the class only had ten minutes left by this point. He supposed it wasn't the best possible use of his time, but if it made it pass faster, he was all for it. 3:30 PM on Wednesday couldn't come soon enough.

The bell rang and he caught Maya's arm before she dashed out the door to art class. She looked at him questioningly.

"What do you want, Huckleberry?" she asked, turning to face him fully.

"So you think anyone could play baseball, hmm?" She nodded slowly with a sarcastic smile appearing on her lips.

"Yeah, Hee Haw, you make it look easy. It can't be _that_ hard if you play it." He smirked playfully.

"Then I propose a dare." Her smile widened. She had never lost a dare that he had posed to her and she wasn't about to start now.

"I think I see where this is going," She got out a piece of binder paper and a pen. "Lets put this in ink, shall we? List the conditions for me, will ya, Sundance?"

"I dare you to try out for softball. To win, you need to: one, make the team, two, become a starter by the end of the season, and three, the team has to win at least half of the games during the season." Maya shook her head, her blonde curls bouncing around her shoulders. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I'll do you one better, I'll take the team to the playoffs," she said, confidence filling her smile. He returned the gesture, scratching the back of his head.

"Wow, looks like someone's confident." He waited for her to finish writing the terms they had agreed on in the fancy looping handwriting that she reserved for their dare contracts. She dotted the end of the sentence and looked up at him.

"Alright, some conditions for you then. _When_ I make the team, you have to come to all the home games and the away games within a twenty mile radius. That means you have to come to the away games at Kennedy, Pioneer High, Liberty High, and Hudson Prep. If you miss any of the required games unless it is for an emergency, I win by default. So, what are the stakes?" She paused in writing down his requirements and thought about what she would demand from him. He rolled his eyes upward as he thought about what he could possibly ask for from the little blonde. There were so many possibilities and he had to pick the right combination so that it would be fair and word it just right so that she wouldn't be able to find a loophole.

"I've got mine! If I win, you've got to do whatever I say for a week, Huckleberry," She said, waving her pen in his face before she leaned over to scribble it down on the paper. He whistled loudly.

"Do whatever Maya Hart wants me to do for a week? Thats pretty harsh don't you think? I've gotta up my stakes then. How about… You have to throw out all my old nicknames forever and come up with all new ones—" It was Maya's turn to whistle.

"You've gotten smarter since we last did this. But not good enough, _Lone Ranger,_ I've got a load of nicknames I haven't even used yet," she said with a snarky grin plastered to her face. He held up a hand to stop her.

"Hang on, I wasn't finished. I also get to call you Shortstack," He leaned down so that he was a mere few inches from her face, his smirk beaming down on her. "For a _whole_ month." She shuddered when he backed away. She wrote in the last sentence.

"Looks like I'm rubbing off on you, Sundance…" she muttered to herself, not looking at him as she signed the dotted line she had drawn. She pushed the paper and pen over to him to sign as well. As he took the pen, he smiled.

"Oh, believe me, you haven't seen nothin' yet. Texas Lucas is worse than you'll ever be." When he handed the paper back to her, he could see the annoyance in her eyes, but curiosity and intrigue lingered just beneath. He didn't like keeping his past from his friends, but it was nice having this kind of effect on the blonde. She stuffed the "official" contract into the cover sleeve of her binder, Maya shot him a crooked smirk.

"You keep telling yourself that. Whatever gets you through the day." He laughed lightly. She had no idea.

The bell rang and broke the two from their stupor. The taller boy looked down at her with a shocked expression on his face.

"I guess we should get to class then." The blonde nodded in agreement before slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess I'd better run, the art room is across the quad. Later loser!" She called over her shoulder as she trotted to the door, throwing a salute his way. He shook his head in amusement before hefting his messenger back onto his shoulder and walking towards the English building.

* * *

Wednesday was here, and Lucas couldn't help but stare at the clock in anticipation as he tuned out Mr. Matthew's lecture. It was the last period of the day and there were five minutes left until he could run to the locker room and then warm up to play his favorite sport. He had noticed Maya had a gym bag as well and remembered that softball tryouts were on the same days as baseball tryouts, but they were on the softball fields on the other side of campus.

He wondered if she would even be able to meet the first requirement of the dare, making the team. He knew she was great at art and somehow had a lot of power packed into her little body, but the tall boy had never really seen her as the sporty type. She was a painter, a musician, an artist. And those all required a lot of sitting and not moving or getting exercise. And he knew for a fact that Maya was extremely lazy, but was that because she just didn't feel like doing anything or because she got too tired doing anything?

In all honesty, he actually hoped Maya would win the dare. The team had never been too great and when Maya Hart had her mind set on something, there was nothing that could get in her way. Perhaps this would be their year.

He was also looking forward to having someone else in their friend group that he could go to the batting cages with or even just talk about baseball or softball with (he actually really liked both but there was only a girls team for softball so he just stuck to the one). Riley and Farkle had never been sporty people and Zay played football, but his ballet schedule clashed with the baseball schedule so he couldn't be part of the team. But now if Maya played, there would be more of a reason for him to go to the softball games and someone that he could discuss other schools stats with.

Really, this dare was a win win situation. If he won, he would get to watch Maya struggle (not really) with finding a whole new set of nicknames for him _and_ he would get to call her Shortstack all month. If he 'lost' he would still get to spend some time with Maya, something that he didn't usually get a chance to do.

Its not that the two of them weren't friends, they just never really hung out together. Hopefully, this would give them the chance to spend more time with each other.

Suddenly, he was startled from his daydreaming by the bell ringing. Maya turned around to look at him and their eyes locked. He merely blinked at her for a moment, before a smile split across the tall boy's face. He jumped up and grabbed his bag, practically running out of the room and pausing only to hop up and slap the top of the doorframe when he dashed out. The blonde shook her head and chuckled lightly, bending over to pick up her own drawstring bag. Riley looked over at her best friend, a slight smile on her face.

"Knock it out of the park, Peaches," the brunette said, throwing a double thumbs up. Maya laughed lightly and returned the gesture.

"Will do, Pumpkin." With that, she skipped out of the classroom and down the hall towards the softball fields.

* * *

Its my head cannon that Maya plays softball in high school because of Lucas. So, yeah, story.


	2. Chapter 2

Tryouts had gone bye far to quickly for Lucas' tastes, but if he made the team he would be playing much more baseball in the near future. When he had snatched his gym bag from the boys locker room, he wandered over to the art room doors, limping slightly from an old knee injury that always lingered during football and baseball season. He was supposed to meet Maya so that he could take her down to Topanga's and they could wait for their acceptance or rejection phone calls together. After waiting for a few minutes, the former Texan sank slowly to the floor to sit against the wall, wincing slightly from muscle aches.

 _Man, I_ _'_ _m out of shape_ he thought as he stretched out his calf muscles. As catcher, he had to crouch for extended periods of time, and he certainly hadn't been quite prepared for it. Overall, tryouts had gone pretty well. As it turned out, the senior who had started for the varsity team the previous year who Lucas had been worried about had decided to put his efforts into tennis and hadn't even tried out for the baseball team that year. The juniors he was competing against were all good, but with his strength, Lucas was a far better batter than they were. He felt confident that he would receive a spot on one of the two teams.

As he rested his head back on the wall, the tall boy wondered how his short blonde friend had done. As far as he could remember, she had never really been involved in sports. She had only tried out for cheerleading for countless years because of Riley but he _did_ remember that when she had been in his PE class she had done well in the baseball unit. She was probably trying out for pitcher because she had a good arm (that and the blonde's catching skills weren't very good, probably because she had the cutest tiny hands he had ever seen but he would never tell her that because those little fists had a lot of power).

The sound of light footsteps prompted him to open his eyes. He wasn't quite sure what it was about seeing Maya, her wavy hair tied up in a ponytail, her too-big JQAHS t shirt covered in the red dirt from the softball fields, and streaks of dirt running across her cheeks and covering her knees, but something fluttered in his stomach. She slung her drawstring bag over her shoulder just as she reached him and smirked down at the boy on the floor in front of her.

"What happened to you, Sundance, y'all get stampeded by the cattle?" He smiled up at her.

"Nice to see you too, Maya." Bracing himself on the wall, he slowly rose to his feet. She snickered at him when he looked at her again questioningly.

"Seriously, you're moving slower that Pappy Joe and he's seventy-four." Lucas shrugged, the action reminding him of the tightness in his shoulders. He rolled his shoulders and neck again a few times as they walked towards the student parking lot before responding.

"Well, I haven't played in a while. My muscles aren't used to it I guess. Its a good kind of pain though. It means baseball is back." He sent a blindingly excited smile in her direction and she gave a snort of a laugh.

"You're such a nerdy little Huckleberry, you know that?" She climbed into the passenger seat of the faded, blue pick up truck.

"Well, you've seen my comic book collection, right?" he said as he turned the key in the ignition. His calm smile began fading as she merely blinked at him.

"What? I haven't showed you that?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I've only been to your house once, Ranger Rick."

"Huh. Well then I guess you haven't seen my Captain America collection either." At that, the blonde let out a full out laugh which the taller boy couldn't help but join in on.

"What's so funny about that?" he asked, but she couldn't respond immediately for her laughter.

"Okay, I knew you were a nerd, but a Captain America collection? Come on, its like you're _trying_ to make it easier for me to make fun of you!" Lucas chuckled as he parked the car next to the curb in front of Topanga's.

"Maybe I am," he said, shooting her a look as he hopped out of the truck. Maya rolled her eyes before following his lead (she repeated the action moments later when he held the door open for her, which she actually thought was sweet but she would never tell him that). The blonde immediately dropped down into one of the orange chairs in the middle of the cafe, her bag lowering slowly to the ground next to her as it slipped off of her shoulder. He tossed his bag into the seat next to her.

"I'm gonna get something to drink, you want anything?"

"I dunno, just get me whatever you're getting," she said, not opening her eyes and instead opting to rest her head on the back of the chair. He nodded and walked over to the counter, where to Lucas' surprise, Katy Hart already had two smoothies waiting for him. The woman smiled at him as she wiped down the counter.

"Those are on the house, hon." He thanked her before picking them up, noting that she had gotten their two favorite flavors: strawberry banana for Maya and raspberry for himself. He set the light pink smoothie on the table in front of the seemingly unconscious blonde.

"One strawberry banana smoothie for one Maya Penelope Hart." She groaned and leaned forward to pick up the glass.

"Ugh, softball hurts. My shoulder is killing me," she said, moving her head from side to side to stretch the muscles that connected her shoulder and neck. Lucas copied the motion and growled as well.

"Yeah, mine too. I haven't thrown anything in a while. Hurts right in the joint, right?" The blonde shook her head.

"No, its more like above it? I think? I'm not entirely sure how to describe it…" Lucas' eyebrows furrowed and he reached over, pressing two fingers into the muscle on her shoulder.

"You mean this muscle?" In response, Maya let out a painful sounding growl.

"Yep, definitely that one," she said, her voice tightening.

"Sorry if I hurt you," he said, pulling his hand away, but she quickly grabbed it back.

"Noooooo, its a good kind of pain. Keep doing that." She turned her back to him fully and sipped her smoothie. Rolling his eyes, Lucas put down his own drink and rubbed the muscles on the small girl's shoulders. She let out a contented hum as his fingers found sore shoulders.

Suddenly, a phone buzzed and they paused and stared at each other. Quickly, they started fumbling around in their bags for their devices, hoping it would be a call from one of the coaches. Maya found her phone first, but the screen was blank so she looked over at him expectantly as he finally found his own cell and clicked the green button before holding it to his ear.

"Hello?" A look at the blonde girl showed him that his response had been just as uncertain as he though it had been. He mentally cursed himself.

 _"_ _Hey Lucas, this is Coach Gomez! Do you have a minute?_ _"_ The boy in question shot a wide grin at his friend who shot him an equally excited smile and a double thumbs up, being surprisingly supportive.

"Of course, sir."

 _"_ _Great! Son, you really hit it out of the park in tryouts these last couple_ _'_ _a days in case you weren_ _'_ _t aware. We_ _'_ _d really be happy to have you on the Junior Varsity team as our starting catcher!_ _"_ Maya had leaned in closer to the phone so that she could hear what the coach said as well and she squealed silently in her seat while Lucas' smile split his face in half.

"I'd love to, sir! Wow, thank you so much!"

 _"_ _No, Friar, thank you. And between you and me, with your skills I wouldn_ _'_ _t be surprised if you get moved up to Varsity during playoffs for experience._ _"_ The former Texan's face was radiant with the bright smile that kept expanding across his face.

"Thank you, sir!" He looked at Maya who was sporting a similar look and something inside him melted.

 _"_ _Alright, I won_ _'_ _t keep you any longer. See you at practice next week, Friar!_ _"_ And with that the man hung up and the minute he did, Lucas threw a fist in the air and gave a loud exclamation of his excitement, not caring if he drew the attention of the rest of the cafe's customers.

"You made it as a starting catcher!"

"I know!" In a swift movement, he leaned forward and pulled her to him in a bone crushing hug which she returned with the same enthusiasm. After a few moments, he realized he had held on too long and released her, coughing awkwardly. She laughed at him lightly, a slight blush dusting her cheeks which she tried to disguise by drinking her smoothie. He picked up his own almost forgotten raspberry drink and took a sip, though the smile was still plastered to his face. He couldn't wait to tell his mama (he didn't tell Maya this).

When he looked over at the small girl next to him, she had taken her phone back out of her bag and placed it on the table in front of her, staring at the device intently. He noticed the hairline crack across the bottom that he remembered she had blamed on him somehow even though he hadn't even been there when it happened. He tried to catch her eyes but she was focused on the phone, absentmindedly sipping her smoothie. He wondered if she was just uneasy about winning the bet or if she actually cared to make the team.

"You don't have to get rid of all my old nicknames if you lose the bet." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye for a moment before her gaze flicked back to the phone.

"Its in the contract, I have to."

"But I think I'll miss Huckleberry and Ranger Rick if you ditch them," he said, flashing a crooked grin at her. She snorted a laugh in response.

"Thanks, Huckleberry."

"Don't thank me yet, I'll still be calling you Shortstack for a month." She laughed again.

They didn't talk for a while, just finished off their smoothies until there was nothing left in the glasses and they both looked at the phone expectantly. Maya began nodding off, her chin dropping to her chest every few seconds before her head shot up and she blinked rapidly.

When her phone went off they both visibly jumped and the short blonde stared wide eyed at Lucas as he gave her an encouraging smile. But she still stared at her phone as the song that was her ringtone played.

 _I_ _'_ _ve been waiting for a day like this to come_

She felt her heart beating rapidly and she wondered when this had become so important to her.

 _Struck like lightning, my heart_ _'_ _s beating like a drum_

"Go on, answer it." She looked at the green eyed boy grinning at her supportively. Oh yeah, it was important because it's what was important to _him_. She reached tentatively for the device.

 _On the edge of something wonderful, face to face with_ _—_

"H-hello?" She winced at how her voice had come out as a stutter.

 _"_ _Hi, this is Coach Lisa. Is this Maya Hart?_ _"_ She blinked at Lucas who nodded at her, a faint grin on his lips.

"Yes, this is her." At this point Katy had come over and leaned on the back of her daughter's chair, drying her hands with a dish towel.

 _"_ _Good! I was just calling to talk to you about softball tryouts_ _"_ Maya nodded nervously, knowing full well that the coach couldn't see her. She swallowed and kept her eyes locked on Lucas'.

 _"_ _You have a heck of an arm, you know that? I_ _'_ _m sorry it took us so long to call you, but we_ _'_ _ve been having a bit of trouble deciding. See, we think you_ _'_ _re definitely good enough that you could be the star pitcher of the JV team, but if you_ _'_ _re willing, we would like to put you on Varsity._ _"_ The blonde felt her breath hitch in her chest and Lucas' eyes widened when he faintly heard the statement. The girls on the JQAHS softball team were _good_. It was a huge accomplishment to have beat out most of them and be good enough for Varsity, especially when Maya hadn't played as a freshman.

 _"_ _You might not be a starter right away, but I think that if you really put the work in, you could be our starting pitcher by the end of the year. Meg has done great for the past three years, but since she_ _'_ _s a senior this year we_ _'_ _re going to have to find someone to fill her shoes, you know what I mean?_ _"_ Maya led out an awkward laugh in response.

"Yeah, I think I do."

 _"_ _So what do you say, would you like to play JV or Varsity?_ _"_ This was a huge decision. Maya Hart was never one to be good at anything other than her art. If she chose JV, the bet would be a piece of cake. But she realized that she had a chance to be really good if she chose Varsity. She looked up when Lucas waved his hand to get her attention. He mouthed the word _varsity_ at her animatedly and gave her an emphatic double thumbs up. Suddenly, her smile grew wide.

"Wow, I don't really know what to say! I'd love to play Varsity if you'll have me," she said, biting her lip as she was prone to do when she was excited.

 _"'_ _Course we_ _'_ _ll have you, welcome to the John Quincy Adams High lady eagles!_ _"_

"Thank you so much!

 _"_ _Not a problem, see you at practice!_ _"_ A click was heard as Coach Lisa hung up, but Maya kept the phone held up to her ear, in shock.

"Oh, Baby Girl, I'm so proud of you!" Her mom exclaimed, reaching over the chair to hug her daughter tightly. A smile progressively grew across the girl's face.

"Lucas?" The boy smiled widely.

"Yeah?"

"I made the Varsity softball team."

"Yeah." She squealed with delight and pulled him in for a hug much like he had when he had received his call. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her frame. She pulled away and immediately snatched up her phone again.

"Oh my gosh, I have to tell Riley right now!" She hit speed dial number one and was answered almost immediately.

"Pumpkin, I made the team!" Lucas was taken aback by the loud and seemingly incoherent response the girl got, but Maya didn't even move the phone's loud speaker from her ear.

"I know! But thats not even all! I made _Varsity,_ Riley! VARSITY!" A loud 'Yay' was heard through the speaker and Maya's response matched it's excitement. He heard a loud 'I'm so proud of you, Peaches!' from where he sat and he couldn't help the contented smile that settled on his face. He was proud too.

He was so proud that he didn't even notice the knowing look that appeared on Katy's face as she looked between the former Texan and her daughter. She knew exactly what the look on his face entailed and she knew exactly where he was looking. She gave Maya one last hug before going back behind the counter.

This was going to be one heck of a baseball season.

* * *

So a few things to note:

1\. I don't know why I made Lucas catcher, but I'm just going to stick with it because I feel like it'd be weird if they were both pitchers

2\. I assumed that those are the flavors of the smoothies that they had in their first date based on the color, but I don't know anything for sure

3\. Maya's sore muscle is called the trapezius I believe, in case you care

4\. I promise I didn't plan for the ringtone to match up so well with what was happening, I just thought it would be funny if Take on the World was Maya's and Riley's ringtones and the beginning lyrics just so happened to fit

5\. Meg is a senior girl on the Varsity softball team who has been starting pitcher for all four years of HS. She does not exist in the GMW universe as far as I am aware, I just made her up


	3. Chapter 3

This last week has been nuts, geez. Have a chapter!

Guest: In response to you're review, no I do not play softball. But don't you worry, I want to make this as accurate as possible, so I'm working on researching everything I plan on writing about regarding it! I know how annoying it is to see your sport butchered, so I know how you feel; I play volleyball and everyone _thinks_ they can play it but only 1% of those people actually can or know anything about it. I don't plan on focussing too much on the softball (like describing the games play by play because I've found that doing that gets old _real_ fast) but rather more on what happens because of it. However I'm combining the basic knowledge that I have on baseball and softball and the things I'm researching so I think I'll do okay. In regards to the tryouts thing, I just did it as a phone call because thats how they do tryouts at my high school, so if it was weird, blame my school. If I make any glaring mistakes, don't hesitate to tell me and I'll fix it for you! Anyway, I really appreciate your review, I'll be extra careful!

* * *

The first day of practice wasn't too difficult, there were a lot of base running drills and general work out drills to get the players back into playing shape. Coach Gomez had the assistant coach Larry running no-flinching drills with the catchers as well and Lucas found that he would blink a lot more when catching than he used to.

Though he was the only Sophomore on the team, the older boy's had seen his games from the year prior and respected him well enough though they weren't particularly friendly seeing as they had already made close bonds with each other. But that was okay. It was baseball, it didn't matter how he liked the team, it didn't matter how sore he was, Lucas was happy.

He walked down the hallway until he reached the door of the history room. Lucas' baseball practice ended at the same time as Maya's softball while Farkle's debate team meeting and Riley's cheerleading practice both ended a little while after and the four were going to meet Zay at Topanga's. So he sat down on the median by the soda machine and pulled out his Chemistry textbook. He opened it to the page where he had carelessly shoved his worksheet and pencil and began scanning the book for the bolded word he was searching for the definition of. After a few minutes of reading a riveting section on chemical reactions of metals and writing the definitions of atomic mass and atomic number messily on his paper, the tanned boy sighed heavily, taking off his baseball cap and running a hand through his disorderly hair. He was about to pull his phone out of his bag so that he could distract himself with a game, but right then a new distraction appeared right next to him, accidentally whipping him in the face with a wavy blonde ponytail as she turned to set her drawstring bag down.

"Well, hello to you too, Maya. Or should I say Maya's hair," the former Texan mumbled in amusement, blinking rapidly to dispel the feeling of hair in his eyes. She turned to look at him in confusion until comprehension wiped across her face with an amused grin.

"Pardon my hair, cowboy, it was just passing through," she said as she imitated his imaginary hat tip in his direction. Lucas snorted in amusement.

"You know, some people just say 'sorry', including me. Come on Maya, I've been in New York for four years and I barely even have a Texan accent anymore. Heck, I didn't even have much of one to begin with," he said with mock exasperation.

"Well making fun of you for something stupid sounds like a lot more fun that _not_ making fun of you at all. So, until the game gets boring, you shall be a Huckleberry." A deep chuckle escaped his throat and he closed the book on his lap.

"Yeah yeah. So how was your very first day of softball?" The smile that appeared on her face was genuine, Lucas thought at least. He was glad he was part of the reason that smile was there.

"It was fun! The girls are all really nice and we did a lot of team bonding today. I found out that Meg is a spray paint artist so we were talking about collaborating or something sometime. We mainly worked on basic stuff."

"What kind of basic stuff?"

"Well, coach says that I have a good arm, but my technique isn't great. We took one of those… the speed gun thingies… You know?" She slapped his shoulder with the back of her hand as she tried to find the word. He chuckled.

"You mean a radar gun?" he said in a mock patronizing voice for which she shot a short glare at him for.

"Yeah, that. Anyway, when I'm throwing normally, I get up to fifty-five miles per hour and she says that with the proper technique we can bring that up to sixty by the end of the year," she said, animatedly moving her hands through the air as she spoke. Lucas nodded his head, obviously impressed.

"Wow, thats pretty good! You sure you've never played softball before?" Maya shook her head, her hair bouncing in it's ponytail.

"Not on an actual team, no. I always figured that the only thing I'd ever be good at was art, but, I guess I can add softball to that list of one, right?" She laughed lightly, but Lucas shook his head.

"You're great at a lot of things, Maya, don't sell yourself short!" He almost made a joke about her height but thought better of it when she scoffed incredulously.

"Yeah, Huckleberry? Like what?" He held up an his index and middle finger.

"Well, so there's art and softball, we've established those. But you're also good at reading people, and making people laugh, and getting people to listen to you." As each finger raised for each thing he listed, Maya's cheeks gained a tint of pink.

"Oh, and you're an _amazing_ singer." She opened her mouth to argue but he put his hand out to stop her.

"Don't try to deny it, I heard you last week in the art room." She shut her mouth quickly and averted her eyes, her cheeks a bright shade of pink while he nodded, smiling because he knew he'd beaten her this time.

"Uh-huh. You didn't think anyone had heard you, but I did. You're singing voice is amazing, Maya. And thats not even everything you're good at! You're good at making people feel good about themselves and you're good at helping people feel comfortable. I don't even know how you make people feel comfortable but it works somehow even though you're insulting them and stuff, but it just does," he said with such conviction that she actually believed him. Lucas realized that that last one basically only applied to him because she didn't really insult anyone else except him, but he was on a roll and he intended to keep on with it.

"And you're the best friend anyone could ask for. You've got Riley's back no matter what, you'd protect Farkle from anything or anyone and me… well you're always here for me when I need it. I think about all those people out there who don't have a Maya Hart in their life and think that we're pretty lucky to have one because those people's lives must suck." She laughed with embarrassment and he couldn't help but join in.

"Well, if you think about it, those people back in Austin must be in pretty bad shape because they knew what life was like when they had a Lucas Friar and then had to live without him," the blonde said softly. He smiled down at her. They really were lucky here at John Quincy Adams High. She managed to look up at him and meet his gaze.

"It really does mean a lot, Lucas. Thank you." Their stare was charged, and Lucas could feel the awkwardness of staring for too long set in, but he couldn't make himself look away. Maya was having a similar problem and her face was bright red. Red. Red for stop. Red for no. She suddenly looked away, making sure to direct her eyes anywhere except for near his face. She coughed and on the other side of her she could hear him shuffling when he realized how close they had gotten to each other.

"I uh… yeah. No problem… buddy…" he managed to mumble awkwardly. She lifted her fist into the air and punched his shoulder lightly with her small fist, letting her hand drop back into her lap directly after.

"Yeah… buddy." They sat quietly for the next couple of seconds until Lucas remembered what they had been talking about before.

"So! Softball, uh, what did coach say was wrong with you're pitching technique?" Maya turned to him with a too bright smile and _almost_ looked him in the eye (she managed to look at the space just to the right of his face).

"Oh, right! She said that I throw too far to the right and too high. We're going to get a video camera a little after our first game and she said we can use it to pick apart exactly what I'm doing wrong." Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"That late? I can do that without a camera. It'll be a piece of cake, I've seen you throw, theres not that much that needs fixing."

"You'd really do that? Even if it means jeopardizing your win of the bet?" she said with a smirk, her eyes slowly coming focusing back on his face as she became comfortable again. He nodded.

"'Course I would. What's the point of having you play softball if you won't play with me? That was my main motive for challenging you anyway." She laughed loudly, the sound of her amusement echoing in the hallway.

"Whatever, Ranger Rick. I'll just have to take you up on that," she said, taking her phone out of her bag slowly when it buzzed.

"How's Saturday? We can meet at the park." She smiled, but didn't look up at him as she unlocked her phone.

"Sure thing. Text me the time and all that." He nodded in agreement.

"So Riley just texted me saying that she's in the locker room and she'll be here in a minute," the blonde said. Farkle rounded the corner at that moment.

"Hey, Maya. Freakface," he said jokingly, taking off his red debate team jacket and dangling it over his shoulder. The taller boy laughed.

"Farkle, I thought _you_ were the pretty boy from now on, why am _I_ still a freak face?" he asked, pretending to be exasperated. The genius shot him an unamused look.

"Oh, come on. Just because you're not the resident pretty boy, doesn't mean it's natural to look like that." He poked his friend's cheek harshly and looked at Maya.

"I mean, look at this! Smackle informed me that there's only 12% of the world's population that's even close to this! His cheekbones are literally carved out of stone, right, Maya? You try," he said. Quickly it became the two friend's jabbing the former Texan's face with their fingers and laughing as he tried to escape.

"What are you doing?!" a voice called, causing them to pause in their actions and look down the hall where a brunette girl in a cheerleader's uniform stood, hands on her hips and a laugh bubbling from her lips. Maya smiled at her friend widely.

"Well you see, Pumpkin, Farkle here was just telling me that there's only 12% of the world's population that has a face like the Lone Ranger here has, so we were investigating." The brunette laughed loudly as she walked up to them.

"Well I don't know how poking his face is going to tell you anything, but who am I to get in the way of science," she replied, reaching out to hug her blonde friend who leaned into the hug immediately.

"Well if Farkle's taught us anything, its that nothing gets in the way of science. Are you guys ready to go to Topanga's?" Maya asked. She received three murmurs of assent, so she picked up her bag and skipped with Riley towards the doors that opened towards the parking lot, leaving Lucas and Farkle to follow behind at a slower pace. The taller boy looked down at his friend.

"So, Smackle, huh? I thought you two were broken up?" the genius nodded.

"Oh we are, but we're still friends. We've had quite a few stimulating conversations since we broke up, its not too much different actually. She's still infatuated with the scientific perfection of your face though in case you wondered." Lucas sighed with an exasperated smile on his lips.

"Well, at least I know that science says I'm cute." Farkle gave a snort of a laugh.

"Well since I can't prove it wrong, I can't argue I guess." Lucas suddenly smirked and got a mischievous look in his eye.

"So since your single now, there wouldn't be a different girl you've got your eyes on, could there?" The thin boy glanced up at the former Texan from the corner of his eye.

"What are you getting at, Lucas?" Lucas shook his head nonchalantly.

"Oh, nothing. I was just saying that I wouldn't be surprised if you were interested in someone new now. Like, say, a certain cheerleader? Maybe with brown hair and eyes and I know you've always had a thing for sweet girls—"

"Shut up, Friar…" Farkle said quickly. Lucas laughed at his friend as they pushed through the doors of the building into the sunlight. They quickly heard the noise of a friendly argument between none other than Riley and Maya. The girls were standing by the passenger side of the pick up truck and Riley was pouting at Maya who had her arms crossed across her chest.

"But, _Maya_ , I got here first!"

"But, _Riley,_ I called shotgun first!" Maya said, mimicking Riley's slight whine.

"And beside, if we raced every time, you'd always get to sit up front because your legs are longer than mine and you run faster because of it," the blonde explained.

"Exactly! My legs are longer! If I sit in back my knees are basically up to my chin!"

"Doesn't matter, I called it!" Maya noticed Lucas approaching and quickly consulted him on the matter.

"Yo, Heehaw. Your car, your rules. I called shotgun, but Riles got here first, who gets the front seat?" Lucas and Farkle stopped in front of the girls and the taller boy took a moment to think.

"Well, usually the person who calls it gets the seat, but Riley doesn't fit too well in the back and in this car you don't call shotgun to get the seat, so I'm not sure. Try calling the right thing and then we'll see." Maya's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but Riley jumped up with an excited look on her face.

"Ooh! I know!" Lucas put a hand up to stop Riley from blurting the key word.

"Now now, Riley, lets see if Maya knows." The blonde glared up at him as nothing came to mind.

"I'll give you a hint, I call my truck the Millennium Falcon."

"How am I supposed to know that, Hop-along?" Lucas smiled and pointed at Riley, who immediately called out the password enthusiastically.

"CHEWBACCA!" He nodded while Farkle laughed in the background. Maya continued glaring at the former Texan though realization dawned on her that the Millennium Falcon was from Star Wars.

"Good job, Riley, the front seat is yours." He unlocked the car, but as Riley cheered, Maya lunged for the door and hopped into the passenger seat.

"Yeah? Well, I call Rosa Parks. I'm not getting out of this seat and you can't do nothin' about it." She stuck her tongue out and Farkle kept laughing while Lucas joined in and Riley pouted again.

"Well played, Maya. But how about we compromise and you both sit up front? Its a bench seat, just slide over and Riley can sit there too," he reasoned. The blonde nodded slowly and scooted to the middle of the truck.

"Fair enough. Deal." Riley cheered again and climbed into the seat next to her friend. Lucas turned to Farkle.

"You good with sitting in the back by yourself?" Farkle gave him a word of assent and a thumbs up, so Lucas jogged around to the driver's side and hopped in just as Farkle did the same. Once everyone had their seat belts on, he started the car. Riley immediately switched the radio on to a pop station and began animatedly singing along to a Taylor Swift song with Maya, while Farkle smirked and nodded his head in the back and Lucas groaned and hit his head on the steering wheel.

Yes sir, Lucas Friar was lucky to be in New York with these people.

* * *

Uh-oh, my Riarkle shipping is showing. Oh well.


	4. Chapter 4

So I haven't uploaded in a while because I've been having some issues with doc manager... so I might have figured it out, I just hope the formatting isn't all off. But do not worry! My lack of updates is, in fact, not from forgetfulness for once! I will figure this out eventually!

* * *

As a result of baseball and softball season beginning, the group's hangout rituals increased in volume dramatically. Usually, there would be Maya hanging out at the Matthew's apartment with Riley two out of the five weekdays and in the art room for a few hours two other days while she waited for cheerleading practice to end so the two could travel to the Matthew's or to Topanga's afterwards. Sometimes Farkle would join them, sometimes Lucas, and once in a while Zay. Sometimes Farkle and Riley hung out at Topanga's by themselves while Zay was MIA, Lucas was wrapped up in homework and Maya was working on an important painting that she finally had inspiration for. But every Friday, the whole group got together at Topanga's at around five thirty.

But recently, the dynamic had shifted. Since all except Zay had after school hobbies, they would find themselves hanging out with whoever was done at the same time as them. Which meant more of Riley and Farkle hanging out and talking about their days (with Zay included from time to time because he had picked up the habit of chatting with one of Riley's cheerleader friends after practice), and more of Maya and Lucas scrounging for food after practice and complaining about sore muscles. Fridays still meant all five friends would get together, but the new schedules meant that Riley and Maya were apart during the two and a half hours between school and hang out time at the cafe.

"So what were you thinking food wise?" Lucas asked as he buckled the his seat belt. The two sat in the blue pick up truck at four in the afternoon in the school parking lot, Maya's feet up on the dashboard. The girl shrugged her shoulders as she fiddled with the radio dial.

"Not really sure. You wanna head over to Nighthawk? My mom says they still make a mean tuna melt." Lucas thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"Sounds good. They still make onion rings?" he asked hopefully, glancing over at her out of the corner of his eye before starting the car. She responded with a silly grin on her face.

"The onion-iest rings in Greenwich village, Ranger Rick." He smiled widely and turned the key in the ignition, the engine rumbling to life immediately.

"Fantastic."

* * *

"She really ended up in the splits?!" he managed to ask through his incredulous laughter. The blonde's head bobbed in a nod as she giggled along with him.

"Really! She said her foot slipped, but she's a gymnast! I'd bet both mine and Riley's friendship rings that she did it on purpose. Such a show off," Maya muttered. He shook his head in disbelief as he took a sip of his raspberry smoothie (which wasn't as good as the raspberry smoothies they made at Topanga's but it was raspberry so he didn't mind much).

They'd been at Nighthawk for two hours and had gone through three plastic baskets of onion rings, four smoothies, and one and half a tuna melt (the other half of which Maya was saving for Riley).

"Well, you're team is definitely more fun than mine. The team this year is so competitive, it doesn't seem like anyone is having any fun except me," he said, resting his elbows on the table and leaning forward.

"That's probably why they made you starting catcher. Who better than a Huckleberry to lighten up the mood?" Maya reached over and snatched one of the onion rings from the basket with her forefinger and thumb. He sighed.

"I guess. I don't know, its not like I expected. I mean, it's a junior varsity team and I'm the _only_ sophomore. The rest of the team is Juniors somehow, its crazy." Lucas took another sip of his smoothie, eyes downcast towards the table. The blonde across from him kicked his shin lightly so that he looked up at her with slight irritation.

"Well, if it's that competitive, it means you're really good. You deserve to be there, okay, Hop along?" The corners of his mouth turned upwards, pushing his smoothie over to her.

"Thanks, Maya." The blonde smiled sweetly as she quickly finished off the smoothie. Lucas tugged his phone out of his pocket and had to do a double take when he saw the time. He looked up at Maya with wide eyes as the girl licked the excess smoothie off of the bottom end of the straw. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"What is it, Huckleberry?" she asked, pointing the straw at him.

"It's six 'o clock." She raised an eyebrow.

"So?" Lucas looked down at his phone and scrolled a little.

"So, we were supposed to be at Topanga's half an hour ago." Maya's eyes widened to the size of saucers. She quickly dug in her drawstring bag and pulled out her phone. Fifty-two missed texts and 3 missed calls from Riley, and one text and call from Farkle and Zay respectively.

"How many did you get?" She asked. Lucas visibly gulped.

"Well, I've got thirty-eight texts from Riley, a call from Farkle, and Zay's giving me a play by play of Riley's stages of freakout over text." Maya pressed one on her phone for Riley's speed dial and held the phone up to her ear, biting her lip.

"Fantastic," she muttered as it rang. Riley picked up on the first ring and though the phone wasn't on speaker, Lucas could still hear the girl's loud response.

" _Maya! Oh my gosh are you okay?! Did something happen?! Is Lucas with you?! Is_ he _okay?!"_ Maya winced with each question.

"Calm down, Pumpkin, we just lost track of time. We're at Nighthawk, we'll be there in a few minutes, okay?" Lucas looked at his phone as the screen lit up, signifying a text message from Zay.

 _ohhhh i see why youre late_

Lucas breathed deeply in annoyance as the next few messages rolled in.

 _so you and the Blonde Beauty were together_

 _ALONE_

 _btw my phone autocorrected 'maya' to 'the Blonde Beauty'_

 _is that not the greatest thing ever?_

Lucas switched his phone over to his messages from Farkle when Zay sent him a smirking emoticon.

 **Riley thinks you two died.**

 **You should probably get here soon.**

 **And Zay's definitely going to be bugging you about this. Honestly, I will be too.**

"Okay— Okay, Riles. We'll— Okay. See you in a few." Maya tapped the hang up button on the screen and looked at Lucas apologetically.

"So… We're in for some lecture when we get to Topanga's." Lucas sighed and let his head drop in exasperation.

"How long you thinking?"

"Hour and a half, two tops." He hooked his finger through the keychain loop of his keys as he stood up from the booth. She followed suit, stretching her stiffened legs.

"What if we just run away? You know, bag up all our stuff and start over in the midwest. We could make it, they'd never find us," he reasoned, shooting her a hopeful look as he held the door open. She rolled her eyes as she walked passed him.

"Come on, Ranger Rick, it'd look bad if you ran away from me, but running away from Princess Riley Dancing Sunshine Cotton Candy Face Matthews? You'd never live that down." He shrugged his shoulders before following her to the truck. When he turned the key, the pop station that Maya had set button number 2 on his truck. He made a face that could only be described as a grimace and shut it off. The blonde looked at him strangely.

"You know we don't have to listen to mine and Riley's station all the time, right? What music do you like anyway?" Her hand reached for the dial to turn the radio back on but he grabbed her wrist before she could reach the control panel. He shook his head in response to her quirked eyebrow.

"Trust me, you won't like my music." She scoffed.

"Well, I have a very eclectic taste, so maybe I will," she retorted, defiantly flipping the radio back on and hitting the button for preset number one. Quickly her ears were met with a cacophony of electric guitars, drums and monster screaming. He shot a look at her out of the corner of his eye before pulling out of the parking lot, trying to gauge her reaction. He mouthed along with the words quietly, continually glancing over at her to see what she was doing.

"Well."

"Well?" He could see a slow smile appearing on her face and let go of the breath he hadn't known he was holding.

"I expected some twangy country song about tractors and heartbreak but this is much better." He chuckled a little to himself. Maya had lots of unexpected tricks up her sleeves.

"Glad you like it. Riley did the same thing once, except when she changed the station she basically had a heart attack. She almost slapped me in the face she got so scared." Maya's hearty laugh rang out clearly even with the music blaring.

The two sat in silence for the majority of the ride (silence being the sound of Avenged Sevenfold screeching while Lucas mouthed the words and Maya observed him with amusement). They parked the truck and then rushed towards Topanga's. To many observers, a short blonde girl dragging a boy almost twice her height by the wrist was comical, but when they finally made it to the cafe, Riley had immediately embraced said blonde and Farkle and Zay merely checked the tall boy's wrist to make sure it hadn't been sprained.

"Peaches! Don't you ever worry me like that again! I thought you'd died, or been shot, or gotten mugged, or kidnapped, or—"

"Calm down, Riles. You gotta breathe, okay? Come on, breathe with me." As the girls did calming breathing exercises together, Zay and Farkle were pestering Lucas relentlessly.

"So. What _were_ you two doing that made you so very distracted? I couldn't quite tell, but our very own Blonde Beauty might've sounded a little breathless picking up the phone, didn't she Farkle?" The genius just chuckled before turning to his friend who was violently pinching the bridge of his nose as if warding off an oncoming headache.

"No, but really. Where were you guys?" The former Texan shot a thankful look at his friend.

"We were at Nighthawk. Maya wanted a tuna melt and we just ended up eating a ton of crap." Zay opened his mouth to say something, but Lucas' glare shut him up quickly.

"Don't even go there, Zay." The boy put his hands up in surrender, but his cheeky smile remained on his face. Riley and Maya made their way back to where the boy's sat on the bar stools, now smiling widely and calmed down.

"I'm all good now. Neither of you are dead or injured, and I got half a tuna melt," Riley said happily. Zay pouted at the girl.

"No fair, I was fully prepared to spectate a two hour Riley rant and then y'all calmed her down with half a sandwich? Thats it?" Riley smiled and shrugged, taking a bite.

"What can I say, its a powerful sandwich," Riley murmured through her mouthful.

"So, what did you guys want to do tonight? Bowling? Movie?" Farkle asked in an attempt to keep his friends on task.

"We went bowling last week. What movies are out right now?" Lucas asked, pulling his phone from his pocket to check.

"There's not a lot of Riley-appropriate movies…" Maya noted, furrowing her eyebrows as she looked over Lucas' shoulder to look at his phone. Zay and Farkle shared a knowing look over the closeness of the two. Riley shrugged.

"I'm actually pretty tired, we worked on a new routine in cheerleading today. Do you guys just want to come over to watch something at my house?" Riley asked hopefully. The other four nodded in assent and began organizing how they would all get there. They ended out with Farkle and Zay catching a ride with Lucas to his house so that Lucas could shower and pick up a change of clothes from his practice uniform. They were planning to stock up on snacks from the Friar household while he did this. Maya and Riley would take the subway back to the apartment to do any last minute clean up.

Riley and Maya left a few minutes after the boys did, walking briskly to the subway station so not to miss their train. It was only when they were hanging onto a pole descending from the ceiling in the subway that Riley spoke.

"So you just lost track of time at Nighthawk?" Maya blinked a few times, the question catching her off guard.

"Uh, yeah. I was telling Huckleberry about this thing that happened during practice today and we ended up clearing out Nighthawk's raspberry smoothie supply. I'm not sure how it happened exactly." Riley nodded and mouthed an 'oh' but her eyes had a strange faraway look in them. Maya raised an eyebrow at her friend's odd behavior.

"Whats up, Riles? You look like you did that time when Farkle told you he didn't really like pink," Maya questioned, nudging her elbow into the brunette's ribs lightly. Riley shot her a smile and shook her head quickly."Nothing's wrong! I'm okay," she replied, her voice a little too chipper to seem natural. Maya's brow furrowed, but she didn't push. Riley wouldn't say anything until she was ready. Maya respected Riley's privacy and Riley tried her hardest to respect Maya's, so Maya asked about cheerleading and Riley brightened up significantly, immediately chattering on about what they had worked on. A small smile appeared on the blonde's face. This was how life should always be.

* * *

Tuna melts are the most powerful of sandwiches


End file.
